The past week or so have brought on a flurry of creative activity. From gardening, to cooking/baking/food prep, to another couple rolls of new film images, I've been keeping busy. In addition, I've been looking for a job, but that's slow in coming given my narrow, very specialized skill set (as one of my friends noted, I need a patron that simply wants to collect my artwork...anyone with suggestions regarding this is welcome to chime in!). Something will emerge on that front, I'm confident, and in the mean time there are lots of other things in the works.
Beginning with the Easter holiday, I went about preparing some of the traditional Polish foods my family has always enjoyed. To me, Easter is about the spring and if I were to classify myself as Pagan, I'd probably celebrate this holiday on the equinox, or Ostara. As it is, I can't separate Easter Sunday from my family and heritage, and in fact I have no reason why I would want to. It's another opportunity to come together in community, to share, acknowledge the ancestors and feel part of something bigger.
One of my favorite edibles to make is what we always called chrzan (which is sort of pronounced like Shawn if you were to make a "k" sound first...). While the definition of the Polish word is specifically horseradish, our family equated it to horseradish with beets. As far as I know, that has a different name and I remember there being heated discussions about what was what, which probably isn't unusual in families that are once or twice removed from the old country!
But I digress. For this condiment I get a fairly thick, fresh horseradish root (about an inch and half in diameter) that's about six inches long. The root is peeled and chopped fairly small and put into a food processor. I then make a solution with about a quarter cup of vinegar, a half teaspoon of salt and a couple teaspoons of sugar and boil that until everything is dissolved and then cool. This is added to the horseradish in the food processor...lid goes on (and stays on!!), pulsing and blending until there's a course paste. If you make this, be really careful when you open the lid because the fumes can pack a punch. This can be used as is, but I like it our family's way and add a couple of small to medium sized cooked beets...cubing them up and adding to the food processor to process until everything is well blended. This is traditionally used with kielbasa and ham, but since I'm not much of a meat eater I use it with eggs, on cheese sandwiches, and even with veggie sausages. I just know it has some medicinal qualities that jump start the body after a long winter!
Babka making was next on the list of traditional foods. The recipe I use, in and of itself isn't particularly profound. Flour, yeast, milk, eggs, butter, sugar...some flavorings and raisins. What makes this recipe special is that it was my grandmother's recipe. My mother made this dough into babkas, makoviec (poppy seed roll), fresh fruit topped coffee cake and, once a year and only once a year, paczki. I took up the mantle for this tradition about the time I started my own family. So far, none of the young'ns seem interested in following suit, but their lives are different than mine, as mine is different than my mother's. It's always a pleasure and a meditation for me to go through the act of making the recipe, as it gives me the opportunity to muse on my grandmother (whom I never knew) and the generations before her.
Moving through such significant transitions at this point in life, has made me appreciate my heritage all the more. It's not better or worse than anyone else's, but it's mine. My grandmothers had to be pretty brave souls to leave all they knew and move to this foreign soil. They worked hard and were dedicated to their families. My mother's mother in particular I'm strongly drawn to. She seemed very artful and expressed herself in such a way to my mother, that makes me think she was tuned in to more than what the eyes see.
So...that was Easter. The following week I did some fun stuff, like go to the St. George Distillery in Alameda, but that should be a blog post of it's own! The garden has been a major focus and is really coming together. Oxalis is nearly eradicated...well, for this season, and herbs have been uncovered and seem to be growing heartily. In fact, I was able to pick a bit of comfrey to make a small batch of infused oil (since I'm out!). Once the plants are larger, I'll be able to up the quantity of oil, but I'm happy for this little harvest right now...
Rhubarb was also harvested from the garden and adding it to some farmer's market strawberries, strawberry rhubarb galette was on last weekend's menu. What is it about rhubarb? I love the stuff...the slightly astringent, round, tart quality really appeals to me. Intererestingly enough, this is another food medicine that's perfect for the spring.
I'll finish up here by mentioning my current attempt at brewing ginger beer (or more precisely, fermenting it, for all those wonderful probiotic benefits). I've made the bug (starter) and it's nice and bubbly. Check out Sandor Katz's Art of Fermentation for this and other very cool recipes. The ginger bug is made by taking a couple spoonsful of grated ginger (with peel on), a couple spoonsful of sugar and adding a cup of water to them in a jar. Leave the jar set on the counter with some cheesecloth over it. Add a spoonful each of grated ginger and sugar every day, until you see it bubbling (mine has taken three days). At this time (and what I'm going to go do after I post this!) the ginger beer base is made by boiling ginger in water and straining, then adding sugar and more water. After it cools, the solution is put into a crock and the strained ginger bug is added. The crock will set for a number of days on the counter until the beer is nice and active and then can be bottled (I used the toggle topped bottles with gaskets), with the bottles setting another few days to a couple weeks before refrigerating and imbibing. Let me say right now that this is by no means the "official" way to make ginger beer and I've explained it in a rather free form way. But I tend to be very experimental about this stuff. If you feel like giving it a try, do a little research and, better yet, get Katz's book!
Have a great spring week, everyone!